…here’s an interesting blog piece from my friend, Author, Shawn Griffith, that has set my wee grey cells thinking, Lads and Lassies of Blog Land… I’m sure it will have some of yer own twirling as well… enjoy…

From Shawn Griffith

#GotCharacter? Has society given up on character?

First I want to say, “Thank you Seumas!” Thank for the opportunity to share with your wonderful readers and to give a fellow blogger a hand up. You sir are a gentleman of character in many connotations of that term.

“Men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

There have been numerous books and studies done about our culture moving from character based one to that of personality based. What does this mean? Simply that it is now perceived to be more important to be liked than to have good character. I feel strongly that we (all of us) need to demonstrate, encourage and expect good character. If not, society will have no conscience. Do I expect you to become a one person fight against everything that discourages or disparages character? No. I do expect all of us to look around and when we see acts born of good character, point them out, extol them, celebrate them. If you tweet, use the #GotCharacter hash-tag when you want to share an act that exemplifies good character. When we have personal choices, I expect us to think, then act with good character. I know there are programs in schools to teach and encourage good character and also there are just as many bone-headed politically correct zero-tolerance, zero-compassion, zero-thought rules as well. Let’s point out the good in a public and joyous manner. Let’s help the bad to improve and change toward better in private and uplifting style. Much like the Starfish story (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Thrower) if I can help one, then it matters to that one. If I can encourage one, then I have doubled my opportunities to improve the character and the conscience of society. I cannot do it alone. I need your help. I am asking for your help.

I am writing a book about this very topic and seek your thoughts, input and suggestions. This book will not be for sale. It will be freely given. Over the next several weeks, I plan to release some excerpts on my blog for review, comment, etc. to help me hone the message. I welcome any all thoughts on how to promote this message. If you would, take a moment and answer the following questions. In the comments preferable, but at least write them down on a piece of paper at home.

What is good character to you?

Why is it important to develop good character or not?

How does pop culture in music, movies, books and social media portray and affect character?

Why do you witness acts born of poor character around you and think you should not get involved?

If you could only do one thing to improve your own or someone else’s character, what would that be?

Are the thing you feed your mind (books, music, movies, people, conversations, social media, etc.) building and encouraging your character or tearing it down?

If I were to observe an opportunity to help you improve your character, how would want me to bring it to your attention?

Thanks for stopping by. I hope I left you with some food for thought and better yet an urge to improve, not just yourself, but the world around you. We can do this. One person, one idea, one change at a time.

Shawn Griffith has had a wide and varied career, a large part of which has been to take the round peg and pound it into the square hole and make it work. This was most true when he was at Texas Instruments, but he has always had the opportunity to work with a collection of systems that may or may not have been intended to work together. This coupled with his love of puzzles made for some interesting and challenging scenarios. He converted from a software engineer to a business analyst in his time at Southwest Airlines. Shawn’s specialties include process improvement, troubleshooting, business analysis, improving existing systems, metrics collection, analysis and reporting. When he is not working, he enjoys hiking, photography, kenpo/kempo karate, reading, writing and blogging.

…cheeeers, that man, Shawn… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…

ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!

Character is simple–old school christian values like those having to do with morality, for example, or kindness or generosity, fall behind things like integrity and honesty. Consistency is for drones. I’d risk boiling it down to one word: true. A person of character is true.

I agree, thanks for stopping by. I like trying to boil things down to a simple description. When John Wayne gave a speech a dinner to raise money for a Scout ranch, he talked about the Scout Law and how Trustworthy was the most important, for with out trust, a man is nothing.

Thanks, Shawn, for those thought-provoking questions. I think character is simply caring for and helping your fellow man and being a good caretaker of the world we live in. Thanks, Seumas, for bringing us this information. 🙂

Interesting post and not what I was expecting when I saw character. I think a lot of how people act stem from their influences. If people around you act with character then you’re more inclined to do so. Perhaps a domino effect too where if enough people act with good character, the more the mentality and actions will spread. Right now, you see a lot of attention being given to more selfish and egotistical personas. So people who want to fit in or are unsure of how to act ‘good’ will emulate what they see. We all do it to some extent though, but the influences we absorb are always different.

Thanks for nice thoughts Charles. I agree and like your thought about the domino effect. That is what I hope to achieve. If I can personally affect one other person and get them to affect or influence one other and so on. It will help eventually. If I can induce those that influence many through their art, be it writing, television, music, etc. then we can make faster progress.